Middle Schoolers Are Smoking Electronic Cigarettes

Yesterday, the American Lung Association warned that middle and high school children are smoking electronic cigarettes at a "troubling" rate.

Data released from the Centers for Disease Control shows that between 2011-2012, the number of 6-12th graders reporting having ever used an e-cigarette more than doubled -- from 3.3 percent to 6.8 percent. Use of e-cigs among 6-12 year olds increased from 1.1 percent to 2.1 percent. (Six-year-olds???!!!) Twenty percent of the middle schoolers who admitted smoking e-cigs said they had never smoked a traditional cigarette, compared to 7.2 percent of high school students.

E-cigarettes are not just plain water vapor, as some people mistakenly believe.

The devices typically contain so-called "e juice" -- typically propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and flavorings, plus pure nicotene. But e-juices are not regulated. No one oversees what goes in them, or who makes them, or under what conditions. Even though vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol are FDA-approved in foods, studies are scant about what happens if these substances are inhaled.

All year, people in the e-cigarette industry have been waiting for the FDA to come up with proposed regulations for regulation of the juices, and for the sale of e-cigarettes.

The Lung Association warns that this is a new route for kids to get addicted to nicotene.

From a statement:

These troubling numbers highlight the urgent need for the Obama Administration to move forward with regulating e-cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products. None of these products are currently under the authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). E-cigarettes are sold in dozens of flavors that appeal to kids, including cotton candy, bubble gum, Atomic Fireball, and orange cream soda. Because e-cigarettes are a relatively new tobacco product, most states do not have laws prohibiting the sale of e-cigarettes to kids. One recent study estimated that there are over 250 different e-cigarette brands for sale today, over half of which offered fruit and candy flavors. The three major cigarette companies now also sell e-cigarette products.

A group called the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association has argued that fears about electronic cigarettes are largely overblown. The group lobbies to keep them legal and readily available, at least for adults, because they are a great tool for weaning people off deadly conventional cigarettes.

That group's president, Elaine Keller, says that the CDC's news about kids trying e-cigs is alarmist -- but CASAA is in favor of laws that prevent the sale of e-cigarettes to minors anyway.

The group's legislative director Greg Conley released a statement:

Three habit descriptors are typically surveyed when asking about tobacco or drug use -- ever use, past 30 day use, and daily use. It is daily use that is clearly correlated with youth continuing to use the products rather than just experimenting a few times. Real public health practitioners and policymakers should not allow experimentation by youth to cloud their judgment about the great health benefits experienced by adult smokers who switch to e-cigarettes.

State lawmakers should continue to pass and enforce bills banning e-cigarette sales to minors, but should resist calls by misguided organizations to enact further restrictions on these life-saving products.

Keller said the FDA's draft industry regulations are now expected in October.